Latest News from Equality Now - August 2012

Partner Profile: Soheila Vahdati Bana (Iran)
Human rights activist, writer and scholar Soheila Vahdati Bana has played a key role in transmitting reliable information about the difficult realities of her counterparts living in Iran, helping expedite international advocacy to end human rights violations against women in Iran. Equality Now first collaborated with Soheila on her “Stop Stoning Forever” campaign, and recently spoke with her about the women’s movement in Iran and her reaction to the recent ban on female students[1] from more than 70 Iranian university degree courses. Read the interview here[2].
Promoting the Protocol in Francophone Africa

In our continuing effort to train lawyers and activists to effectively use the Protocol[3] on the Rights of Women in Africa (the Protocol), Equality Now convened a lawyers training workshop from 30-31 July in Dakar, Senegal. Targeting lawyers and women lawyer’s associations from 12 French-speaking African countries, the training was opened by Senegalese Minister for Justice, Aminata Toure, who stated, “We are completely open to you and your partners…the direction for human rights has been put in place recently and we are in the process of building it and we look up to you to kind of develop partnership for our own capacity-building.” As this type of training isn’t typically conducted in French-speaking Africa, many of the lawyers approached Equality Now after the workshop to inquire about conducting trainings in their individual countries. Read more at www.afriquejet.com[4].

Woman's Rights in the News

22 Aug - Cambodia looking to end child sex trade[5]: “The announcement comes as more reports have been published in recent months highlighting the growing child sex industry aimed at tourists in the Southeast Asian country.”

14 Aug - Thousands rally in Tunisia for women's rights[6]: “Activists are not happy with a stipulation in a draft of the constitution that considers women to be 'complementary to men' and want a pioneering 1956 law that grant women full equality with men to remain in place.”